Deadly Powers (Tapped In Book 2) (26 page)

I said nothing, but continued to stare at the man who’d arrived with Heidi. Just as I was about to enter his mind, Billy turned and addressed everyone.

“Now that Ms. Goertz has arrived we can proceed—can formalize your membership into the greatest organization this world has ever known. You will vow allegiance, and utter the sacred pledge. Those not ready, or not inclined to do so, should leave now. Jordan will accompany you back down the mountain. No hard feelings; I wish you well.”

Billy the Kid surveyed the crowd—looking for anyone not willing to officially join the ranks of the Order. There were no takers. Billy smiled broadly, reached a hand out to Heidi, and raised their clasped hands high into the air. “Together, we will anoint you all into the fold … into our family.” With that, Billy the Kid and Heidi Goertz headed toward the mine’s opening. We all watched them until they disappeared into the darkness.

“We’ll do this in two separate groups!” Jude bellowed, now standing on the flatbed wagon where he’d displaced the singing duo. “Space is cramped in the mine.” Holding a sheet of paper in his hand, he looked at it as he spoke: “When I call out your name I want you to assemble near the opening of the mine. Those names not called will be in the second group … so be patient.”

Sundance, at some point, had released his hold on my arm. He was still close and I gave him a slight nod.

Jude began to call out the men’s real names; apparently, there was no longer a need to use our gunfighter aliases.

“Thomas Wright … Terrance Crow … Larry Sanders …”

One by one the men, jubilant at being chosen to enter in first, hurried over to the mine. I contemplated shouting something, telling them they were all going to be killed—that they were not the chosen ones. But nothing I’d say would be believed, and I’d only get myself shot by Jordan, holding a Winchester rifle, and moving about the ranks of excited men.

Unceremoniously, I reached a hand up to unsnap my two collar snaps. It was time. Sure, I’d still have to overtake Palmolive—snatch the wireless detonator off him—within the next few minutes. But the time had come to bring in SIFTR … bring in the cavalry.

Startled, I saw movement off to my left. In a blur, I saw Jordan, who, two handed, rammed the stock of his rifle into my face. Everything went black.

* * *

Pippa walked alongside Palmolive, her hand still grasped tightly in his. She caught him for the umpteenth time staring at her; felt his grip tighten on hers—an unspoken gesture of his love for her. So far, she’d carried it off. Palmolive was none the wiser that she was an imposter. Walking between the rails, they moved deeper into the dimly lit mine.

Why did Rob look at me that way? Didn’t he look into my mind … hear my repeated
message, explaining that it was me in Heidi’s disguise
? She knew that look—he’d wanted to kill her, was prepared to do so right then. She couldn’t think about that right now. Baltimore’s words were playing over and over in her head:
You need to think and act exactly like Heidi … take control of every situation … every conversation … just like she would.

“Tell me about your preparations here. I don’t like being left in the dark,” she said.

“Everything’s exactly as we discussed. We will welcome them into the fold … have them all take a knee position and close their eyes. As they repeat the sacred vows, we will move toward the exit.”

“And the cave-in?” she asked, slowing her pace and looking down at him. She wasn’t one hundred percent sure a cave-in was planned, but it seemed logical.

“Again, just as we discussed. Everything’s handled, so why concern yourself with—”

Pippa angrily turned to face him: “Who do you think you’re talking to? When have I ever left the details to someone else?”

Palmolive stared back at her. Like a wounded child, his eyes searched hers for forgiveness. “I only wanted to convey to you that everything is going as planned.” Without moving his eyes from hers, he reached into a pocket on his vest and held up a small device, similar to a remote garage-door opener. He then placed it back in his vest pocket and, patting it twice, said, “All is well, my love.”

She softened her features, letting the smile return to her face. She reached up and took the man’s mole-infested face in both hands. “You are so amazing, my little Polly.” Tenderly, she kissed him on the lips while fighting back a gag.

Together, they entered an expanded, quasi-circular juncture, sited within the roughly cut walls of the mine, approximately thirty yards in diameter. Looking up, the cavern ceiling was so high it was lost in the blackness above. Three tunnels, slightly smaller than the main artery they entered in from, branched off in different directions. Pippa’s mouth fell open and then, just as quickly, she composed herself.

Palmolive was watching her every expression. “I thought you would be pleased. Is it not exactly what you requested?”

What she was seeing would have warmed Heidi’s heart. The cavern had been transformed: Special lighting—high-mounted spotlights—along with four blood red banners hanging down from high above. Each banner, at least forty feet long, prominently displayed the Nazi emblem. Actually, not the old, familiar, Nazi emblem for that one had been modified. Here hung the twenty-first century version of the nefarious swastika—overlaid now with an added pyramid symbol, and an all-seeing eye above it—as depicted on the back of the U.S. one-dollar bill.

Pippa moved to a waist-high lectern, made of white marble, and ran an open palm along its cool flat surface. Looking up at the banners, she realized she didn’t have the complete picture. Why had they gone to so much trouble for a group of men they were going to exterminate in the end, anyway? Then she remembered there were two groups—all this would be for the second group. “Walk me through what comes next, Polly.”

Palmolive looked momentarily flustered by her question. “We’ve spoken about this … numerous times.” Seeing her impatient expression, he continued, “The first group will be brought in here, where they will assemble together, and you, standing there at the lectern, will administer the oath … the oath into the WZZ.”

Pippa’s eyes flashed over to Palmolive and she hoped he hadn’t noticed her alarm. She never anticipated that the Order would be folded into the WZZ—she’d just assumed it would be the other way around.

“Once the men in group one give their oath,” he went on, “each will shake my hand, then yours.”

As Palmolive spoke, Pippa spotted several small, disgusting spit-bridges in his mouth—little bands of saliva, spanning his upper molars to his lower molars.

“One by one they will be instructed to proceed into that center tunnel, where they will walk in silence one full mile, entering deeper and deeper into the mine. There, in another chamber, not so very different from this one, they will complete the second part of their indoctrination. At least, that is what they will be told.”

As he spoke, Pippa noticed the large metal hanging door. Four six-inch rollers, evenly placed along the top edge of the massive door, hung from a ten-foot-long rail. Using both hands, Palmolive pulled the door along the rail until it closed—separating the cavern from the tunnel. He walked back to Pippa, moved in behind her, and slid an arm around her waist. He pulled himself close to her, bringing a hand up to cup her left breast. He fumbled with her shirt and bra and found her nipple and squeezed it tight between thumb and forefinger. He said in a low tone, “I know you like that … I know exactly what you like.”

The cosmetic procedure Pippa had recently undergone, for the second time in her life, was extremely painful. To match Heidi’s anatomy, her face and all key areas of her body were modified—careful scrutiny given to every detail—along with too many injections to count. Her breasts were now firm and far larger than her normally small, albeit perky, ones. They were still extremely sore and ultra sensitive to touch—even the fabric of her bra was hurtful. The ride up the mountain on horseback had been miserable. Now, with tears filling her eyes, as his boney fingers pinched … pinched … pinched … it was all she could do to hold back a scream.

She felt his erect hardness, slowly, rhythmically, thrusting up against her. He buried his face in her neck, kissing her there. She pushed herself into him, turned her face to let him kiss her mouth, then asked in a low, husky voice, “So … what then? Tell me the rest.”

His breaths were coming faster and deeper now. He was moving to unbuckle his belt but she shook her head and pulled her face away from his, letting him know there would be no more fondling until he spoke.

Frustrated, he looked over to the main tunnel: “Well … at that point, the second group will be ushered in here by Jude. They will be told that the first group has moved deeper into the mountain to complete their processing. We will then administer the same oath to group two—to the men actually being accepted into the WZZ.”

Palmolive pulled the small remote switch from his pocket. “Inside the mine, it takes approximately twenty minutes for a person to walk a mile. So we’ll give them … the first group … thirty minutes, to ensure they are deep within the mountain.” Smiling, Palmolive mimed pushing the remote’s button: “Click,” he said.

Pippa smiled—emulating what she guessed would be Heidi’s sick glee at the prospect of fifty men being escorted to their death.

Palmolive said, “There are enough explosives planted over there that the whole damn mountain will shake. Dust will fill the air and we’ll quickly usher this second group of scared men from the tunnel, back out the same way they entered. A horrible accident … a horrible cave in.” Palmolive made a mock sad face, then said, “Having a mountain literally cave-in on top of them will make any extraction of bodies impossible.”

“What about us … will we—”

He raised a reassuring palm. “We’ll be perfectly safe here … far too removed from the actual explosions.” He propelled the hanging door back along the rail to open it.

“And notifying the proper authorities, the next of kin?” Pippa asked, extricating herself from his grasp when he returned, and moving toward the open cavern.

“We’ll give it a couple of days. We’ll be far away from here by then. Let Jude and Jordan deal with the fallout. They’re being well paid for that sort of thing.” Palmolive pulled a pocket watch from his pocket and stared at it momentarily. “It’s time. Time to bring in the first group.”

Pippa bit the inside of her lip. She had to get that remote switch away from Palmolive before things progressed further. “I’ll be the one to trigger the cave-in. Give me the remote,” she demanded, holding out a palm, eyebrows arched.

Palmolive stared at her, and said, “That’s not what we discussed. I think that it’s best if—”

“You think?” Pippa mimicked, all playfulness absent from her face. “Do you really want to make me angry at this stage of things? I thought we were partners, partners for life. Wasn’t that how you phrased it? This is just another indication of your lack of trust in me.”

Palmolive continued to stare at her, nervous and looking hurt. He tentatively fished out the remote, looked at it, then back at Pippa. “What other indications?”

Pippa pursed her lips and tilted her head. She’d seen Heidi make the same petulant gesture and she did her best now to mimic it.

“Seriously … what other indications?”

Her heart rate leapt. She almost had him—was on the verge of getting the information she came here for. Pippa looked down, making a little-girl-pouty-face—another manipulative Heidi Goertz antic. “I’ve risked everything by joining with you again. My organization … my very life. All for you!”

“What … what do you want?”

“I need to know what’s going to happen. I mean exactly. What targets are going to be hit, the timetable. What if I don’t agree with your decisions?”

Palmolive looked confused, then spoke slowly: “We’ve already agreed to this. You had no problem with me handling this aspect—”

Pippa flared at him, “Well, I do now! There are too many secrets. Far too many. Are we leaders together, in every aspect, or not?”

He looked to be contemplating the question when Jude hurried in from the main tunnel. “Natives are getting restless. Ready for group one?”

Pippa answered before Palmolive could say anything, “I don’t know … perhaps it’s best if we forestall the whole thing …”

“No! Bring them in.” Palmolive, still holding the wireless remote, held the device out to Pippa, making another mock sad face. “Our first fight … here, take this. I want you to be the one to initiate World War III in … a war that will be won without a single bullet fired.”

Waiting silently, Pippa positioned herself behind the lectern, her eyes fixed on one of the long, gently swaying, red banners. She was, for the moment, alone in the cavern. Her heart pounded in her chest as she considered all the negative repercussions if she didn’t properly handle things right. Her thoughts turned to Rob. Why hadn’t he made contact with her? She recalled the way he’d looked at her—no—the way he’d looked at
Heidi.
She was fairly certain he hadn’t peered into her mind yet. There’d been murder in his eyes, and knowing Rob, knowing what he was capable of, it occurred to her in that very moment that her life was in just as much danger from him as his was from Palmolive. Could his hatred of Heidi be so fervent it actually kept him from looking into her mind? She closed her eyes and shook her head.

“Are you still upset with me?”

She opened her eyes to see Palmolive standing there.

“No. I’m fine,” she replied, smiling back at him.

The first group of men were already filing in. Heads first turned right and left, until their eyes caught sight of the hanging red banners, and the modified Nazi swastikas. She put herself in their shoes, seeing the despicable symbol. Personally, she’d have spun on her heels already and made for the exit. But these men, with the exception of a few sideways glances at each other, held fast. Whatever their individual reasons for being there, being accepted into the Order or the WZZ trumped everything else.